Agricultural sector value chain and government policy in Nigeria: issues, challenges and prospects

Purpose This paper systematically reviewed the contributions of the recent Nigerian government agricultural policies and the impacts on the agricultural value chain system in line with the structural transformation of the sector and the Nigeria's vision 20:2020. The study also suggest strategies to upgrading various segments of the agricultural value chain and argue that Nigeria's agricultural sector requires huge investments and innovative ideas to increase production and create value addition across the most profitable areas of the value chain. Design/methodology/approach The authors systematically present evidences and data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (the apex monetary authority of Nigeria) and Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (oversees and publishes statistics for Nigeria) to estimate the impact of Government agricultural policies on the value chains system. Findings The study discovers that the various recent government policy interventions to tackle the austere challenges in the agricultural sector are yet to yield much significant solution. Given to the dwindling performance of the sector, the Nigerian agricultural value chain is somewhat affected with systemic and services gaps which underpin the market failures (missing markets and weak markets), although the agricultural value chain has the potential of triggering economic growth in a higher scale with a trickle-down effect to other sectors of the Nigerian economy. Practical implications Overall, the findings indicate strategies to upgrading the production and processing segments of the agricultural value chain and argues that Nigeria's agricultural sector requires huge investments and innovative ideas to increase production and create value addition across the most profitable areas of the value chain. Social implications The study proves that enhancing value addition in the agricultural sector is imperative to achieving triple-benefits of increasing productivity by building resilient systems that leverage on finance opportunities, deepening economic inclusive growth and achieving great milestones. Originality/value This study is the first attempt to focus on agricultural value chain system in line with the structural transformation and the Nigeria's vision 20:2020.